Vectrex: The forgotten home video game system

The following article was originally published in the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles in September 2007. It is republished here for your enjoyment.

If I were to say to you right now, “name a home video game format from the 1970s or early 1980s,” the first words out of your mouth would be Atari. Maybe some of you would say Intellivision, and there’s a few hearty souls for whom the Magnavox Odyssey or ColecoVision formats hold fond memories.

But if I were to ask you about the video game system Vectrex… yes, that is the sound of crickets chirping that you hear.

Vectrex, an all-in-one video game system that featured line graphics on a built-in screen, tried to enter the video game marketplace in 1982.That was when Smith Engineering, a videogame company started by former Mattel employee Jay Smith, tried to provide a home gaming experience as close to the coin-operated arcade games as possible.

A vintage Vectrex game in action. Photo courtesy Erik Klooster.

At the time, Smith’s company had acquired several thousand surplus cathode ray picture tubes, similar to the ones used for television screens. Rather than toss out the tubes, Smith and his team decided to integrate the screens into an all-enclosed video game system. Unlike other video games of the era, where the gaming console was plugged directly into the television, this new system (called “Vectrex,” after names like “Vector-X” and “Mini Arcade” were rejected) integrated the cathode ray tube and gaming console into a sleek jet-black enclosure. Because the game could be transported from room to room by unplugging the unit, carrying it into your bedroom and plugging it back in, Vectrex was essentially the first portable home gaming system, surpassing the Nintendo Game Boy by over a decade. Well… it was about as portable as bringing a phonograph to a Walkman convention, but let’s take this one byte at a time.

It is interesting that I used the term “bytes,” because the Vectrex system didn’t use a bit-and-byte display. Other video console systems of the time operated on a 4-bit operating system, illuminating pixels of color on the screen. Vectrex, however, used vector graphics to create their imagery. In vector graphics, the images are created by lines and angles, which create geometric and ray-traced figures with fluid movement (if you remember the coin-operated game Asteroids, the images of the arrow-shaped spaceship and the flying rocks are all vector graphic images).

Smith Engineering shopped the Vectrex system to several toy companies, and finally worked out a deal with a small company called General Consumer Electronics, and game programmers frantically aim for a June 1982 store launch, with plans to sell the games for $199 per unit.

A licensed copy of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” game for Vectrex.

During that time, Vectrex screens only operated in a black-and-white format; color vector graphics were too cost-prohibitive and complicated to incorporate into the video game system. Vectrex cartridges were, however, available with clear plastic screen overlays, so some color effects were available, but if your spaceship flew from one side of the screen to the other, it might change color whether you wanted it to or not. Also, because of the arrangement of the computer boards inside the Vectrex unit, the games contained a feedback hum, known among Vectrex fans as the “Vectrex Buzz” – a tone that could only be removed by replacing some wires inside the Vectrex chassis.

Vectrex debuted on store shelves in the summer of 1982, with one game in the console itself (“Mine Storm,” an Asteroids clone game), and several cartridge-based games. Most reviews for Vectrex are positive, and by the spring of 1983 Milton Bradley purchases the Vectrex console and games from General Consumer Electronics. The future looked bright for Vectrex.

Unfortunately, Vectrex got caught up in what today is known as the Great Video Game Crash of 1983. A proliferation of low-quality and quickie-tie-in games were produced for the Atari 2600 and other competing systems. Console platforms like the Coleco Adam were met with raging ennui. The defining moment came when millions of unsold copies of a quickly-produced “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” cartridge were dumped in a New Mexico landfill.

Vectrex, however, tried to stay ahead of the video game crash. Milton Bradley spent a fortune to pick up the license for the popular coin-operated racing game Pole Position, as well as a tie-in version of Star Trek as a first-person shooter game. A “light-pen” was designed for Vectrex, so that one could actually draw on the screen. Vectrex even experimented with a 3-D gaming system, which required the game player to wear a visor with colored lenses. Milton Bradley even dropped the price of the Vectrex core system from $199 to $149.

But by the spring of 1984, Vectrex units sat on store shelves, even after being marked down to $99 – and to $49. When Hasbro bought Milton Bradley in 1984, Hasbro shut down the Vectrex division, sending the entire Vectrex line back to Smith Electronics. By 1985, Vectrex was an orphan system, a term used for video game platforms that have been abandoned by the public.

A Sean Kelly modified Vectrex “multicart” cartridge, capable of playing several different games.

“When Vectrex came out in 1982, we only had one television in our house, so it was great to have your own video game system without fighting with your parents for TV time,” said Sean Kelly, a Vectrex fan and one of many hobbyists still keeping the Vectrex gaming system alive. “Back in the late 1980s, when USENET newsgroups were basically college kids talking to each other, the college kids hacked the information on the old Vectrex cartridges and posted the hacked information on the Vectrex USENET newsgroup. Jay Smith, who founded Smith Engineering, owned the rights to the Vectrex games, and he posted a message on the newsgroups saying that the fans and hobbyists could use the Vectrex data for any non-commercial purposes.”

Because the original games were hard to find in any working condition, Kelly hit on an idea. “I took all the games that were made up to that point, and I put them on a single Vectrex cartridge. I spoke with Jay Smith, and although he said we could use the games for non-commercial purposes, I asked him if I could charge a fee to assemble all these games into one cartridge – and he agreed.”

Today, the “Sean Kelly” cartridges have become a boon for new Vectrex fans – instead of trying to acquire 30 different original titles, all the games could be found on a single cartridge. “Vectrex had this cult following for years,” said Kelly, “but the systems aren’t readily available and the games are harder to find. Anyone who wanted to play games like Pole Position or Polar Rescue had to pay $100 or more for the cartridges on eBay. The cartridges that I make now have 60 games on it, and a scroll-down menu to access them all.”

Today, a working Vectrex system can start at $75 to $150, depending on condition. Original cartridges can sell for $25 for common titles, and up to $100 for rarer titles. Additional peripherals, like the light-pen and the 3-D imager, can start at $100 apiece and go up. And thanks to a dedicated cadre of technical experts, new Vectrex games are being manufactured today, including such concepts as Vectris (a “Tetris” knockoff) and Vectrexians (yes, it’s the space game Galaxian). And with new devices like the VecFlash, one can download a classic Vectrex game from the Internet and play it on an original Vectrex system.

If you’re a fan of other vintage video game home entertainment systems, you may want to check out the Classic Gaming Expo, a yearly convention dedicated to vintage gaming systems like the Atari, the Intellivision – and, yes, the Vectrex. For more information on the Classic Gaming Expo, visit their site at www.cgexpo.com.